John McGahern Quotes

It was becoming clear to me that I shouldn't bother to get too attached to anything. Turn your back and you lose it. Just like that.

Everything you gather is just one that you can lose.

I live my life until there's no more living to be done. Because you never know when it's going to stop. Wake up tomorrow and it could all be gone, bro. All the cars, all the motorcycles, everything. All the memories. We could go into a state of emergency, you know, and the world goes to war. The money won't count for nothing.

Life is sweetest when it could go away tomorrow.

What really keeps me going is the constant belief that it could all disappear tomorrow.

I saw that nothing was permanent. You don't want to possess anything that is dear to you because you might lose it.

I can't be smug, because I know that you can lose anything at any point. And I can't be angry, because I haven't lost it.

No man can lose what he never had.

The more you own, the more you know you don't own.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live.

What I have learned over the years is to try to stay in the moment. I want to feel it all because I've realized nothing lasts.

To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

I am so thrilled by the privilege of life, and yet at the same time I know that I have to let it go.

The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment.

So how can you lose what you've never owned?

I am aware of the depths of heartache I'm experiencing but also how foolish it is to think that the things we have are permanent. They're not.

I cherish every moment, because success can be taken right away from you.

Relationships are temporary, and everyone needs to understand that.

I'm trying to just accept things, accept the beauty of things and the joy and positivity of things as they are in the moment and accept when it's not that way as well. Because, of course, none of it lasts forever. It's all going to change very rapidly. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It doesn't have to be panic-inducing. It can be just the way life is.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away

I learnt too late that what is most important to us is always most precious at the moment it occurs, and it is precious in its absolute immediacy and not as some vague confirmation of future directions; since the only certain fact, aside from death, is the flimsiness of everything.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

I miss the grasshoppers much, but suppose it is all for the best. I should become too much attached to a trotting world.

At least half of your mind is always thinking, I'll be leaving; this won't last. It's a good Buddhist attitude. If I were a Buddhist, this would be a great help. As it is, I'm just sad.

Our poetry now is the realization that we possess nothing. Anything therefore is a delight (since we do not posses it) and thus need not fear its loss.